Greenpeace Launches Legal Challenge Against Amazon Warrior

Tuesday, December
5: A legal challenge against the world’s largest
seismic oil exploration ship will be launched at a public
rally today on Parliament Lawn.

Greenpeace is calling on
the Government to take a stand against the oil industry, end
oil exploration, and revoke the exploration license of the
Schlumberger-operated Amazon Warrior, which is currently
seismic blasting for oil in the middle of a blue whale
habitat.

At the rally, Greenpeace will announce legal
proceedings seeking a declaration that Schlumberger requires
an additional permit from DOC under the Marine Mammal
Protection Act (MMPA), and without it, must stop seismic
blasting. Greenpeace understands the company has only been
granted a permit by the Ministry of Energy under the Crown
Minerals Act.

Anyone undertaking activities that could
disturb marine mammals, including whales, must seek a permit
under the MMPA, says Greenpeace campaigner Kate Simcock. She
says there is clear evidence that seismic exploration
disturbs and even injures whales.

Schlumberger’s
operation will see it firing seismic blasts into the seabed
to search for oil every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, for up
to three months.

"The impacts on blue whales in this area
are likely to be torturous, interfering with their
communication and feeding," Simcock says.

Wellingtonians
have been invited to come along to the rally on Parliament
Lawn from 12:30pm. They may also get to meet the newest
member of the Greenpeace family, a 17-metre inflatable whale
called Janet.

Last week, and despite increasing public pressure,
the new Labour-led Government approved Schlumberger’s
application under the Crown Minerals Act to search for oil
across 19,000 square kilometres of the Taranaki Basin on
behalf of Austrian company, OMV.

Simcock says the ship is
looking for the oil and gas that can’t be burned if we
want a stable climate. The area is also a blue whale habitat
and the whale’s only known feeding ground in New
Zealand.

"We know that we can’t burn most of the fossil
fuel reserves we know about if we’re to stabilise our
climate. Searching for more makes no sense, and the time to
act is now," she says.

"Jacinda Ardern has said that
climate change is her generation’s nuclear free moment. In
1985, going nuclear free meant taking a moral stand in front
of the world against the powerful US military by stopping
their nuclear ships.

"We want to send the message to
Jacinda Ardern that we all have her back. To take action on
climate change we need to be bold and brave together. We
need to be that little country in the middle of the Pacific
that stood up to the oil industry and stopped their oil
ships."

Today’s protest comes on the back of a decade of
popular opposition to oil and gas from local communities and
iwi up and down the country.

On Friday, a national
gathering of Māori leaders came to an historic agreement to
oppose all seismic testing and oil exploration in the waters
of New Zealand. The Iwi Chairs Forum passed the resolution
to seek amendments to the EEZ Act to give effect to this
opposition.

And on Saturday, Climate Justice Taranaki held
a march through the streets of New Plymouth to oppose the
Amazon Warrior in their waters.

This followed a petition
and open letter to Ardern by Taranaki iwi
calling on her to halt seismic testing off the Taranaki
coastline. Over 10,000 people added their name in less than
a
week.

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